


You Should Know (You Are Mine)

by Lumeleo



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alpha Akutsu Jin, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Getting Together, Jealousy, M/M, Omega Dan Taichi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:26:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23830792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumeleo/pseuds/Lumeleo
Summary: With Akutsu in high school, he now has less of a chance to look out for Taichi. This is a problem. Not because Taichi might get hurt, but because he might get involved with the wrong sort.Taichi will not let others make choices for him, though. Certainly not without making a claim.
Relationships: Akutsu Jin/Dan Taichi
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	You Should Know (You Are Mine)

By the time the school year ended, Akutsu wasn’t exactly surprised to discover this didn’t mean the end of Taichi in his life.

Sure, the kid wailed at their graduation like the world was ending, clinging to Akutsu with surprising strength for someone so small and scrawny. Despite his better judgment, Akutsu awkwardly patted his head, murmuring something about how the high school was literally just across the road. This gained him some weird looks, probably because this was the first time he had actually admitted to anyone that he was actually planning to go to high school. Hearing that made the old hag start crying in turn, and then he had both of them hanging off him, but at least Taichi wasn’t crying quite so much anymore.

Sengoku was just begging to have his stupid grin punched in, but that would have to wait until he got his arms free from the clingy ones.

One might have thought that Taichi would be too busy to bother him too much, being the new captain and all, but somehow the brat found the time to drop by far too often. Akutsu wasn’t sure how he even managed to run around the high school grounds without anyone shooing him away, but honestly, they probably thought he was too cute to turn away or something. He might have worried about some of the bigger assholes going after the kid, except Akutsu wasn’t the type to worry. Besides, he hadn’t wasted time establishing himself as someone not to be fucked with. As such, from the first time Taichi skipped up to him and squealed his name, Akutsu was fairly sure nobody would be stupid enough to bother him.

He had no problem with challenging anyone who needed a reminder, though. And if glaring and growling didn’t do the trick, he was more than happy to let his fists do the talking. He needed to stay in shape, anyway, since the tennis practice was hardly challenging enough.

He wasn’t going to listen to any sly comments about his joining the tennis club again. He just wanted to make sure he could beat the Echizen brat the next time they met, that was all.

Akutsu had wondered how Taichi was going to keep the club under control with most of the old regulars leaving, but going by the gossip from others and what he heard from Taichi himself, he seemed to be doing okay. Apparently rather than cave at any upstart alphas, Taichi dealt with dominance challenges by cheerfully ignoring them, smiling at anyone questioning his authority until they either backed away or lost their cool entirely. The latter should have been concerning, but if Akutsu couldn’t scare Taichi away despite all his attempts, he doubted some half-assed idiots would make him even flinch.

They were walking through a park after school one day, Akutsu focusing on his cigarette and Taichi chattering on, when something the brat said caught his ear. Akutsu halted, turning to look at Taichi.

“What do you mean, you’ve got a match?” He frowned. “Pretty sure your tournament schedule’s not that far off from ours.”

“Oh, it’s not an official match!” Taichi shook his head. “It’s just, Tanaka-senpai has been really troublesome lately, and I don’t want to deal with that when the tournament comes around. So, I’m playing against him tomorrow.” Taichi tilted his head to the side like a curious puppy, smiling brightly up at Akutsu. “He agreed that if I win, he’s not going to argue with me again. Sengoku-senpai said that should work, even though I’m an omega so it’s not exactly a dominance thing.”

“You’re supposed to be an authority, of course it’s about dominance.” Akutsu paused. “And if he wins?”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that.” Taichi’s smile somehow grew even brighter. “Tanaka-senpai isn’t a bad player, but he’s certainly not as great as he thinks. If I could take on Muromachi-senpai in an even match, I know I can handle Tanaka-senpai, too.”

“Wait.” Akutsu’s brows knitted together. “Since when have you been playing evenly against regulars?”

“I am the captain, Akutsu-senpai.” Taichi blinked, looking surprised about the question. “I can’t exactly keep bouncing a ball against the wall forever. Now, I know I’m not nearly good enough to play against someone like you or Ryoma-kun, but I wouldn’t put myself on the roster if I wasn’t regular level.”

“Not a year ago you were whining about how you could never play tennis for real.” Though knowing Taichi’s confidence issues, Akutsu now wondered what exactly ‘regular level’ meant in this case.

“I’ve had a lot of practice since then.” Taichi ducked his head, looking somewhat embarrassed. “Ah! I still have a lot of work to do, of course! But, um, I have improved.”

“I guess it would be hard not to improve when you were starting from fucking nothing.” Akutsu shrugged. “Well, try not to fuck up your match. If you do lose, Tanaka’s going to be fucking insufferable, and I can’t run around fighting your battles.” Which wasn’t to say he wouldn’t, just that it would be inconvenient.

“I won’t!” Taichi nodded with way too much enthusiasm. “I won’t disappoint you, Akutsu-senpai!” Which was obviously not what Akutsu had said, but arguing with the brat would be no use.

He did wander across the road the next day, not that he was going to tell Taichi. Obviously he was just curious about whether the brat was in completely over his head.

Even from Akutsu’s vantage point well away from the courts it was obvious Taichi was basically toying with Tanaka. Whether Taichi himself knew that, he wasn’t sure, but Akutsu was mostly surprised by how not surprising it all was. The brat had learned special shots seasoned adults could never master in a couple of weeks, then been disappointed because he wasn’t suddenly on the level of a prodigy who had been training all his life. Of course he shouldn’t take Taichi’s self-evaluation seriously.

Akutsu left before the match was done, the end result painfully obvious. Later he found Taichi skipping up to the high school gate, practically beaming with his victory. He probably could have spared himself a long explanation by just mentioning he’d seen the match, but he chose to just nod and listen as Taichi babbled on. It required less explaining from his part, anyway.

It became something of a pattern as the tennis season carried on. Akutsu would find reasons to be around to watch the Yamabuki Middle matches, then pretend to be clueless as Taichi recounted them to him later. It gave him an interesting window into the way Taichi viewed both himself and others, contrasting what he chose to say with what Akutsu had already seen.

If anyone had asked, he wasn’t sure he would have admitted that this was interesting. Though then, he was starting to realize there were a lot of things about Taichi he was only comfortable voicing in his head. Only because it would have been too much of a mess otherwise, of course. He didn’t need the idiots around him misunderstanding and complicating things.

Speaking of complications, he couldn’t help but notice that Taichi was talking a lot about Muromachi in particular. Even when he wasn’t recounting matches, Muromachi got mentioned a lot. Which was natural, Akutsu supposed, since he was the vice captain now, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t also mean something else.

Well, it was best not to leave such things to chance. Not when it was about Taichi.

It was entirely incidental that he knew the middle school club schedule well enough to show up just as things were wrapping up. The rest of the team had already dispersed, with Muromachi arranging the last of the equipment before leaving. Taichi wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Perfect.

“You.” Akutsu marched up to Muromachi, not bothering to conceal his growl. “We need to fucking talk.”

“Hm?” Muromachi looked surprised but not as afraid as he should have been. Either Akutsu was losing his edge, or Taichi was a very bad influence. “About what?”

“As though that’s not fucking obvious.” Akutsu walked right up to him, glaring down. It would have been easier without the stupid sunglasses. “Taichi.”

“What about him?” Muromachi frowned. “He’s just fine.”

“Oh, you’d fucking think that, wouldn’t you?” Akutsu bared his teeth. “You probably think he’s really fine.”

“What — wait, hold on.” Muromachi tilted his head in apparent confusion. “You think I’m interested in him?”

“Why wouldn’t you fucking be? He’s pretty and innocent and talks about you all the time.”

“Yeah, because I’m his vice captain! I’m not even into omegas!”

That should have been a relief, but instead it drew another sort of anger from somewhere deep within Akutsu. “What, Taichi’s not fucking good enough for you?”

“What’s going on here?”

They both looked over to the side of the court. Taichi was watching them both with his stupid big eyes. He’d clearly just come out of the locker room, tennis bag on one shoulder and his school jacket not actually zipped up. His eyes slid from Akutsu to Muromachi, clearly trying to figure out the situation.

“Ah, Dan-kun!” Muromachi sounded far too relieved for an innocent man. “Please tell your big brave protector that I’m not dating you! I’m getting seriously worried for my health here.”

“What? Of course not.” Taichi blinked, slowly turning his gaze to Akutsu. “Akutsu-senpai?”

“You’ve been pretty focused on him lately.” Akutsu shrugged, taking half a step away from Muromachi. “Thought I’d make sure he’s not being an ass.”

“Okay, one, I’m not dating Muromachi-senpai. And two, if he was being awful to me, I’d let you know.” Taichi frowned, looking upset. Why, Akutsu had no idea. Everyone knew he needed someone looking after him.

“Oh, please. You’ve got no fucking sense of self-preservation.” Akutsu snorted. “The fact that you’re still hanging around me even though we’re in different schools should damn well prove that.”

“Really? Because I think that actually proves something completely different.” Taichi crossed his arms over his chest, his frown deepening. It might have been more impressive if he hadn’t looked like a grumpy puppy more than anything. “Why do you think you have any right to be screening my potential mates, anyway?”

“Someone has to, and it’s fucking obviously not going to be you.” Akutsu scowled, sticking his hands in his pockets. It would keep him from reaching out and throttling Muromachi, because that would pretty much stop the conversation and he did want to make his point clear. “Can’t have you running off with the first idiot who smiles at you nice.”

“And why not, exactly?” He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Taichi frown for this long at once. The expression wasn’t wavering, though, Taichi’s eyes sharp on him. Akutsu was feeling a lot like an insect getting pinned down. He did not like the feeling.

As much as he would have wanted, Akutsu couldn’t come up with an actual response right away. Instead, he found a growl rising deep from his chest as he stepped toward Taichi. “Because that’s bullshit.”

Taichi didn’t waver, didn’t seem to even notice his growling. Of course. An omega who didn’t care about alpha posturing. Most of the time Akutsu was happy to know the little idiot could deal with the alphas in his team, but this was different. Taichi wasn’t supposed to turn that against him. “And why so?”

“Because — fuck!” Akutsu couldn’t help but stomp his foot, as though that would help him make his point. “Because I’m not fucking going to let that happen!”

“Sorry, Akutsu-senpai.” Taichi kept glaring at him. “You don’t get to protect a claim you’re not willing to make.”

It wasn’t a realization as much as it was a reflex, the words out of his mouth before he could think them through. “Well, then I’m making a fucking claim.”

“Oh?” Taichi’s frown cleared a bit, the large eyes blinking up at him. There was no fear in them, just something like… expectation? “And what exactly are you claiming?”

“You.” It felt obvious as soon as he’d said it aloud, for all that he hadn’t imagined ever uttering such a thing. “I’m fucking claiming you. Then it’s no problem for me to keep others away, is it?”

Taichi blinked again, then broke into a bright grin. “Well, within reason,” he replied, stepping closer. He was practically leaning against Akutsu’s chest now, staring up at him. “I’m not just going to stop having friends.”

“As though I could stop you.” Akutsu snorted, reaching his arms around Taichi and drawing him close. The brat settled easily into his arms, head falling in the dip under Akutsu’s chin as though it was meant to be there. “Fuck knows you’re way too sociable for your own good.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I managed to win you over, didn’t I?” Taichi nudged his chest. “Now, stop being a big idiot and kiss me, hmm?”

Well, Akutsu had already gotten used to Taichi being in his life. He might as well give the brat a reason to stick around.

It wasn’t like Akutsu had any hope of escaping, himself.


End file.
